Apparatus for marking articles



June so, 1942.

H. W. NORMAN ETAL APPARATUS FOR MARKING ARTICLES Filed Sept. 6, 1940 -//vv/vT0/?5 H VV. NORMAN I? STfCH v ATTOPNfY Patented June 30, 1942 APPARATUS FOR MARKING ARTICLES Hollis W. Norman and Richard Stech, Govans, Md, assignors to Western Electric Company, Incorporated, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application September 6, 1940, Serial No. 355,622

4 Claims.

This invention relates to an apparatus for marking articles and more particularly to a fuse marking apparatus.

An object of the invention is to provide an effective and efiicient apparatus for marking drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary sectional side of a portion of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken on line 3--3 of Fig. 1. I

Referring now more in detail to the drawing a hopper 5 is shown in which a quantity of fuse shells to be marked may be placed. The fuse shells are elongated tubes of fiber or other insulating material having fuse elements therein and provided at their ends with terminals to which electrical contact may be made. The fuse shells are placed in the hopper with their aXes all extending in the same direction and the lowermost fuses lie upon the periphery of a drum 6. The drum 6 may comprise a pair of end plates 1 with notches 8 at predetermined intervals along their periphery and mounted upon a shaft 9.

Between plates 1 are a plurality of rolls H rotatably mounted in the end plates 1 and the peripheries of the rolls are provided with a layer of friction material i2 such as cork or the like. The

drum 6 is intermittently rotated and upon rotation each of the notches 8 will receive a fuse from the hopper and a fuse thus removed from the hopper will lie on the peripheries of two adjacent rolls so that the fuse may be readily rotated. The

means for intermittently rotating the drum may consist of a geneva movement comprising, for instance, a disk mounted on shaft 9 which has a plurality of notches I3 in its periphery corresponding to the number of notches 8 in the end plates 1. A second disk 14 is mounted on a shaft 1 I5 and has a stud 16 mounted thereon so that upon counterclockwise rotation of the disk M the stud It will successively engage successive notches l3 and intermittently rotate the drum. The shaft has a pulley I! mounted thereon which maybe driven by a motor I8 through a belt l9.

The intermittent motion of drum 5 is such that a fuse '21 willbe carried to a heated knurled marking member 22 and stopped. The knurled member 22 is supported between the arms of a bifurcated support 23 threaded into the end of an electric heater 24 of the type commonly used in soldering irons which isheated by plugging its cord into an ordinary electric outlet. This heating element together with the knurled marking device is carried upon a slide. 25, the lower end of which is dove-tailed as shown at 26 in Fig. 3 and slides in a guide 21 mounted upon the frame 28 of the apparatus. The slide 25 also carries a roller 3| and adjacent this roller is a shaft 32 rotated by a pulley 33 through a belt 35 driven by a pulley on shaft I5. The shaft 32 carries a cam 35 and upon rotation of shaft 32 the cam engages roller 3| moving the slide 25 to the right as viewed in the drawing. The slide is continu-' ously urged to the left by a compression spring 40 which may be adjusted to regulate the pres sure to any desired value. When a fuse 2% reaches the position shown in Fig. 2 the high point of cam 35 will have passed the roller 3! and spring will urge the heated knurled mark lng member into engagement with the periphery of the fuse. mounted upon ashaft-42 and this shaft also car ries a pulley 43 driven by means of a belt it which in turn is driven by a pulley mounted on shaft 32 which carries the cam 35. The knurled marking memberZZ is therefore continu-' ously driven but it comes in contact with the fuse only When permitted to do so by the action of cam 35. When the heated and knurled marking member comes in contact with the fuse which V is rotatably supported on the drum 6, the fuse will rotate and a circular knurled mark will be impressed upon the fuse. It is, however, usually also desirable to impart a distinctive color to the knurled mark and for this purpose a coloring tape 5| is fed between the marking device and the fuse. A supply of the marking tape is provided upon a reel 52 mounted on arms 53 secured to the hopper. The shaft carrying the supply reel 52 also preferably carries a brake drum 54 against which a spring 55 urges a brake shoe 55 so that the reel will supply tape/only when tape is positively withdrawn therefrom. .In 'i:

order to indicate when the tape-supply is ,ex-

hausted an arm 51 is pivotally mounted to lightl" urge a roller 58 against the tape. When the tape] is exhausted the arm will fall down against a The knurled marking member is stop 59 and the end of the arm will actuate a microswitch 6! to stop the apparatus. The tape passes from the supply reel 52 over a roller 63 between the knurled marking member and a fuse and thence downwardly between a pair of feed rolls 65 and 66. The feed roll 65 is driven by means of a belt 61 from a pulley mounted on shaft 32 while the roll 66 is driven only by contact with roll 65. The roll 66 is carried by a pair of arms 68 pivoted at 69 and urged against the roll 65 by means of a spring H. One of the arms 68 has a lateral projection 12 engaged by a rod 13 the opposite end of which is secured to a similar lateral projection M on a bracket 15 carried by the slide 25. It will be noted that the marking tape is thus advanced both by the rotation of the marking member 22 and by the rotation of the feed rolls 65 and 66. However, when the marking member is moved away from the fuse the tape will not be advanced by the marking member and at the same time rod 13 will pivot the roll 66 away from the positively driven roll 65 so that the take-up rolls also will not advance the tape during this interval. At this time the brake drum 54 and brake shoe 56 tend to prevent advancing of the marking tape and the tape at its lower end is also engaged by a pair of resilient members 8! and 82 attached respectively to the stationary arm carrying roll 65 and one of the pivoted arms 68 carrying roller 66. These resilient members are so arranged as to clamp the tape therebetween Whenever the roll 66 is moved out of engagement with the roll 65.

In the operation of the apparatus the drum 6 Will be intermittently rotated to advance a fuse to the marking position. The marking member 22 will then advance against the fuse to rotate the fuse and draw a length of marking tape from the supply 52. When the marking device has rotated sufliciently to apply a circular colored impression upon a fuse it will be moved away from the fuse and the advance of the marking tape will be stopped. The marked fuse will then upon further rotation of the drumdrop down an inclined chute 9|.

It will be understood that the nature and embodiment of the invention herein disclosed is merely illustrative and that many changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus for marking articles comprising a drum for rotatably supporting articles to be marked, means for intermittently rotating said drum to carry an article to a marking position, a continuously rotating marking roller, means for feeding a marking tape between said marking roller and an article to be marked, means for retracting said marking roller from the marking position While an article is being advanced to the marking position and returning said roller to the marking position when an article has reached the marking position, and means for operating said tape feeding means only while said roller is in the marking position.

2. An apparatus for marking articles comprising a support for rotatably supporting an article in a marking position, a continuously rotating marking roller, a heat conducting support for said roller, electric heating means associated with said support, a cam for intermittently moving said roller from the marking position and returning it to the marking position, and means cooperating with said cam for feeding a marking tape between said roller and an article to be marked only while the roller is in marking position.

3. An apparatus for marking articles comprising a support for rotatably supporting an article in a marking position, said support including a pair of rolls having resilient surfaces to yieldably support an article, a continuously rotating marking roller, means for retracting said marking roller from the marking position while an article is being advanced to the marking position and for returning the roller to the marking position when the article has reached the marking position, means for feeding a marking tape between the article to be marked and the marking roller, and means for rendering said last-mentioned means efiective only while the marker is in the marking position.

4. An apparatus for marking articles comprising means for rotatably supporting an article in a marking position, a marking roller, means for rotatably supporting the marking roller, means for heating the supporting means to supply heat to the marking roller, means for intermittently moving said marking roller from the marking position and returning it to the marking position, and means cooperating with said last mentioned means for feeding a marking tape between said rollers and an article to be marked only while the marking roller is in marking position.

HOLLIS W. NORMAN. RICHARD STECH. 

